 |
| Rob's Soapbox | ||
|
Congratulations!
You have finally landed on the one page on this entire site (and on the entire internet for that matter) that is purely without bullshit... my soapbox page. There are a lot of times during our show that, whether it's because of time constraints and other obligations, I don't always get to address some issues that I feel don't get the attention they deserve. There are even more times when I just don't feel like waiting until the show the next day to get some things off my chest. Thus, I have started the "Rob's Soapbox" page. If you have clicked on this page looking for someone to coddle your fragile sense of self-esteem, or tell you what you want to hear or to reinforce your outdated world view, then exit this page right now and go somewhere else. If you are in search of the last forum for reason and common sense left in the world, then sit back, relax, and enjoy. I make only one promise with this soapbox page... if you read long enough and often enough, you will eventually be offended. So here's my latest soapbox. Listen up, 'cause you just might learn something... |
||
|
||
|
October 30th, 2006 AN IGNORANT AMERICA IS PREPARED TO REPEAT ITS HISTORY… AND DOOMED TO FAIL BECAUSE OF IT You would be hard pressed to find someone that loves this country more than I do. Despite that passion for this great nation, there are times I wonder how we've stayed so great in the past 50 years. As America grew as a nation we went through a variety of trials, tribulations and challenges. There were desperately dark days and times including the great depression, the Civil War and moments where the vast majority of people believed that we were losing World War II. Somehow we prevailed and became stronger through it all. America is both loved and hated for its' seemingly never ending ability to conquer anything and everything that is thrown in its midst. We are almost more of an entity than a nation. Then came the 1960's and everything went to pot… literally and figuratively. The "Blame America First," crowd gained steam and convinced the nation and the world that we were too good and that we as a country should be blamed for our prosperity, not admired for it. Since then, political correctness has lead to a culture where we feel rather than think and completely eschew our greatness of the past in the hopes of creating a more "compassionate" future. The mission statement is, of course, asinine on its face. Start by asking the thriving nation of Japan about our lack of compassion. 60 years after bombing that country into oblivion to end the suffering of a World, that nation stands as one of America's most prosperous and greatest allies, thanks in large measure to the work we've done there. Facts, of course, don't matter, though, when your entire existence is based on feelings not actions. The "Blame America First," crowd would have you believe that we could have talked our way out of World War II not bombed it. I presume they also believe in talking unicorns as well. The true genius of the politically correct movement, however, is how widespread it is. Were they simply focused on America being a bully by using its impressive military arsenal, they probably would have been marginalized decades ago. Instead, though, they have found a way to poison the minds of tens of millions of Americans by not just attacking the nation's military might, but also its social and behavioral ills as well. The America-haters (because that's what they are, really, people who live in a nation they hate) have told us that we as a country are destroying the Earth because: --"Our policies that include putting people to death for crimes encourage barbaric behavior around the globe." --"Placing people in jail rather than discovering the root of their feelings and why they act out makes people akin to animals." --"Our behaviors, like smoking and eating are bad for us and we're too stupid to know better so we should be forced to ingest only what is 'good' for us so that we don't drag down the global health care system." Their list, of course, stretches far beyond those few examples and gets more and more ridiculous. Again, though, they don't care about facts and results, they care about how they feel. As long as the whacko politically correct movement of America thinks they are doing good, despite mountains of evidence to prove otherwise, they find a way to sleep at night. Along with facts, another barometer of success can be a peoples' ability to learn from its own mistakes. In the 17th century a philosopher named George Santayana said "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." We are seeing the dooming results of not knowing our history by the way we, as a nation, our behaving in the Iraq war. We forget the lessons of World War II and Vietnam. Rather, I propose, maybe we don't even know the lessons. America has become so ignorant as a group of people I wonder if most even have an inkling of things that have happened in our recent past and how those things were resolved. Most Americans have no clue that Vietnam was a monumentally winnable war that was botched by American opinion polls and cowardly leaders… much like where Iraq is heading today. Most Americans think that World War II was won in 3 days and was a cake walk as the mighty USA marched into Europe and Asia and showed the world who was boss, not knowing or caring how vastly different the truth is and how close we were at a variety of times to losing the war handily. Then comes this news; in a poll released Friday, more than half of this nation believes that cigarettes should be made illegal. click here to read the news article
Most Americans are not just ignorant about their pasts, but ignorant about their presents. People hear canards about second hand smoke and simply believe them. People are told to ostracize smokers and they do, without asking why. On the smoking issue, the ignorance of a nation is world colliding. Not only does our citizenry have no clue about how and why cigarettes have been so demonized, they have no clue about the last time we did this to an adult vice and made alcohol illegal. It was called prohibition and it almost destroyed America in the first half of the 20th century. Scream, cry, yell and moan about all the differences between prohibition and banning cigarettes all you want. You'll be wrong and you won't care because the facts are moot as long as you feel good. We almost destroyed America with prohibition. By failing to learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it… perhaps this time with devastating results.
|
||